Today is the birthday of former Sunderland loanee Nathan Broadhead, who is now back in League One with Ipswich Town.
He began playing football in Wales and was on the books as a boy at Wrexham, that team owned by Hollywood, but went to the blue half of Merseyside with Everton at the age of 10.
The winger hadn't really featured for Everton or found his way into the senior squad under the umpteen amount of managers they've hired and fired over the past few years, so he had to hone his craft whilst on loan.
His first opportunity came in the form of a move to Burton Albion in the 19/20 season, playing 23 games for the club. He rarely played the full 90 minutes in League One though; he was mostly used as an impact substitute or one of the first players to be brought off. In the cup however, he played the majority of the games, and performed well.
In the Carabao Cup he gave Burton fans one of their best moments of the season, scoring the second goal in a 2-0 win against Premier League side AFC Bournemouth to seal the win. They were actually 6th in the league at the time- albeit six games into the season, but still.
After the loan with Burton, Broadhead stayed at Everton but once again couldn't get into the starting XI under Carlo Ancelotti. It wasn't all doom and gloom though- he had a prolific season with the under-23 squad, playing 18 games and notching 11 goals as well as three assists, not too shabby.
Ahead of the 21/22 season he decided to join the biggest club in the North East, us of course. It would be fair to say he was one of the most impactful signings under Lee Johnson, despite the constant injury worries.
The Wales under-21 international had a great start to the season until tragedy struck when he limped off of the Emirates after 45 minutes. Such a shame after scoring on the biggest stage of his career to date. It was a well taken goal as he chipped Bernd Leno first time, changing the scoreline to 2-1 to Arsenal, giving hope to the players and the fans that we could have made a real game out of it. Until of course, he went off just before half time and we brought on Denver Hume in his place, what a substitute that was… Not.
If you'd like to avoid the Arsenal goals and just watch Broadhead's then you can skip to 0:59.
Broadhead scored lots of crucial goals for Sunderland, including last minute winners against Shrewsbury and Gillingham. He scored 13 goals in 24 appearances for Sunderland, and he played a crucial role in securing promotion.
Despite being loved on Wearside, a permanent move here for the forward never materialised and he was loaned out to Wigan Athletic in the summer. Fans slated him for a lack of ambition. The rumour was that he was unwilling to fight for a starting place, and didn't want to act as backup to Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms. Of course the way things panned out, he would have had loads of game time up front as all of our strikers were injured.
Broadhead scored five goals in 22 Championship appearances, however he was recalled by Everton in January. He was finally sold permanently to League One side Ipswich Town for a reported fee of £1,500,000. He has four goals and two assists so far for the Tractor Boys - I think we can all agree that he's much more than a run-of-the-mill League One striker.
